Tag Archives: food policy

Organic /Sustainable/Both?

Posted on January 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

There has been a lot of discussion this week on an article on farms in Mexico growing organic tomatoes to supply the American market. While, the decision to buy organic is understandable, the idea of demanding tomatoes in winter is not such a  good one. Tomatoes are out of season in winter so they have to be shipped in from Mexico: this process, while profitable for the farmers poses sustainability issues.  The climate is conducive to growing tomatoes in winter but it is essentially a dry, desert area which means that, even though the farmers are using drip irrigation methods, water reserves have been almost exhausted. Many consumers feel that if they buy organic, they are doing the right thing by the family they feed and the planet. Unfortunately, these decisions are more complex than they seem at first look.  The cultivation of asparagus in Peru to ship to European markets in winter presents a similar story.

Here is a basic rule to live by: buy in season. There are no tomatoes in winter so choose recipes that do not require them to be produced in an unsustainable way and shipped using fossil fuels just because we think we must have organic tomato salad. It is hard: I know because I am a tomato devotee having a tough time avoiding those luscious piles of redness at the grocery store but  it has to be done to conserve our resources and ease the strain on our planet.

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Posted in Food Policy, Food Security, Living, Nutrition

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Change Comes to Retail Food Industry in India

Posted on November 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Most Indians have always bought their fruits and vegetables at the stall at the corner of the road, or the nice store that would deliver even a bunch of cilantro or a bunch of carrots to your home if you were in a fix. The supply chain that brought this produce to the market was haphazard at best. Now, all that is set to change, with the Indian government deciding to allow foreign investment in the retail sector, upto 51% for multi-brand retailers like Walmart and Carrefour. There will be various conditions that they will have to satisfy, such as a minimum amount invested in 5 years, support for rural infrastructure and jobs etc. How all these plans work out remains to be seen but the retail scene for food will change drastically. The new policy is expected to dampen inflation, bring in more efficiency and productivity and reduce wastage. Matthew Yglesias pointed out that it will probably result in the top 1% getting extremely rich but so along as the families around the median and the extremely vulnerable are not squeezed, the policy should be a positive one. I am not so sure ,mostly for the food sector. All the people involved in growing, transporting and bringing this food to the family table ( and they number in the millions)will be affected as this policy is put in place. In time, they may benefit but the initial impact will be hard. At a time when there is mounting hunger , malnutrition and concerns about the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity ( specially in South Asia), this new policy will add another variable to an already volatile situation. Caution and a long term perspective should be the way to go in this regard.

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Posted in Climate Change, Food Justice, Food Policy, Food Security, Price Rise

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The Real Farm Subsidy Story

Posted on November 11, 2011 | 1 comment

The Environmental Working Group has just published its report on farm subsidies in the US based on data from the year 2009. Before getting to the analysis itself, it is important to note that the report is based on 2009 numbers because the USDA demonstrates a troubling lack of transparency when it comes to giving out information. What emerges is a clear picture of a subsidy program gone astray. First off, the recipients of these payments are not required to even work on or won a farm. Indeed, the biggest beneficiaries of a program intended to help farmers are actually big agribusinesses, particularly in the south. How uneven is the distribution of this pie? The top 10% of the beneficiaries of this program received 55% of the total payments. Even this cursory reading will reinforce what we know already: small farms which are more vulnerable to the vagaries of prices and weather are not befitting from direct payments at all. This program is merely handing out cash to big players in crops like corn, wheat and soy. Remember that fruits and vegetables are not even covered by this program. So if we are looking to overhaul the food system, eliminate junk and encourage healthy eating, subsidy reform seems like a really good place to start. The EWG data presentation is detailed, fascinating and even available by state here.

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Posted in Food Justice, Food Policy, Food Security, Nutrition, Price Rise

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Trading in Hunger

Posted on November 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

Worldwide, food inflation is a worry.The rising prices have been attributed to failing harvests, rising population and increased demand for food, increased consumption/changing consumption patterns in emerging economic powers, the demand for ethanol etc. But a key factor that is not often mentioned is speculation in agricultural commodity prices which often cause severe fluctuations in the price of staple foods like corn, wheat, or soy, for the consumer. When we click a button to execute a trade and then look at the profits afterward, we may sometimes lose sight of the fact that food is not like any other commodity and trading in food is often the same as trading in hunger. It would seem obvious that there is a need to ban or at least limit trading in essential food commodities. Like other contentious issues such as subsidies, however, there is a lack of political will and consensus in making this happen. More on this here.

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Posted in Food Policy, Food Security, Hunger, Price Rise, Uncategorized

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No Fruit in Fruit Snacks?

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 1 comment

 Fruit snacks often do not contain any fruit at all, they merely deliver sugar from fruits. In other words, they are just the same as candy. This is the rationale behind the Center For Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)’s lawsuit filed against General Mills. So, why are these products filling up shelves at grocery stores? Most people do not read the list of ingredients or nutritional information on packaged products. If it says “FRUIT” in bold letters on the front, this is often accepted at face value. Kids love these snacks, they are easy to pack in lunch boxes and take on the daily round of activities. A child who will turn up their nose at slightly tired looking apple slices will happily eat up a fruit snack. But the truth of the matter is that these are not fruit, but sugar. The underlying issue, though, is one of time. We live our lives at a blistering pace where time for cutting up fresh fruit or reading labels closely just does not exist. It would be better for us all, as people and as a nation, if we stopped to take a breath and rearrange priorities. In the meantime, consumer must take the  responsibility of reading the label and be sure of the contents of the product that is being purchased while  companies need to be honest and accurate in the information they provide.

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Posted in Food Policy, Living, Nutrition

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Tater Tots are Vegetables?

Posted on October 20, 2011 | 2 comments

The answer depends on who you ask, apparently. While a legion of Moms replying, “No!”; armies of kids and the U.S. Senate answers with an emphatic “Yes!”. The government’s legislation to restrict the serving of tater tots, lima beans, fries and other starchy foods more than once a week was defeated in the Senate. The move was led, predictably, by representatives from the potato growing states. This story provides some interesting insights: first, the movement for healthy food is weakened by the  internal conflict between producers and consumers, what is good for the plate may prove a challenge for the farmer whose livelihood is affected. Also, consumers can influence the process of policy making too. The fact that a legislation to limit potatoes on school lunches was even introduced is proof of that. We must participate in the  process, at whatever level possible in order to bring about a positive transformation.

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Posted in Food Policy, Living, Nutrition

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Adapting to Climate Change

Posted on September 12, 2011 | 1 comment

 

A new study ,which analyses data on changes in weather and agricultural production in different countries estimates, that the effects of warmer temperatures has lead to a 20% increase in global prices for maize and wheat. The debate on the factors responsible for these changes may continue but the impact of changing climate patterns is already evident to farmers. In the Midwest, farmers are already investing in machinery, seeds and farm practices that will help them deal with the short term variations in weather. More efforts are required to develop crops that can with stand the long term trend of global warming. It is estimated that a 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature causes a 10 percent fall in crop yield. How will the 2012 Farm Bill provide for these challenges? Funds are required for research into creating strains of crops that will be able to withstand excess heat and flooding, for conservation of existing resources and also for providing counter cyclical insurance to farmers as they grapple with uncertain weather conditions. There needs to be a recognition of the problem and also an openness to scientific methods which can help us face this challenge. In the current economic conditions, obstacles are to be expected.

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Posted in Climate Change, Food Policy, Food Security, Price Rise

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Seeds of Change

Posted on September 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

They say every cloud has a silver lining and with this long downturn it seems like the clouds have been here forever. But,even in these difficult times, there is some good news. Rising food and healthcare costs are forcing people to rethink the way they live. Farmer’s markets are thriving and people are trying to grow their own produce. The next step is the revival of (almost) lost skills like canning, pickling and preserving produce. That is how people used to live in the past: enjoy produce when it is fresh and also prepare for the rest of the year. But grocery stores continue to be a source of produce for many and I wonder if this trend will impact what we pay in the store for fruits and vegetables?

Note: the link above is to the New York Times article on the changes in produce growing in rural Kentucky. There is some issue with the link that I am trying to fix at the moment, you could go straight to the new York Times site to read it in full.

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Posted in Food Policy, Food Security, Green, Hunger, Living, Nutrition, Price Rise

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Can conventional and GM based crops coexist?

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

USDA seeks method to compensate farmers for GM contamination.

It would seem from Marion Nestle’s post on her blog (link above) that the government is trying to find ways to ensure that both forms of agriculture can coexist. The effort to discuss compensation methods would also include a discussion of contamination prevention in the first place.  This is where any discussion on the adoption of biotechnology in agriculture should start, with a consideration for environmental and health concerns. These concerns can then be addressed by setting up  suitable biosafety standards. In this way, we can ensure that the best use is made of the gains of biotechnology without undermining traditional /organic agriculture.

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Posted in Farm Technology, Food Policy, Food Safety, Food Security, Green

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How to Feed the World

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Jason Clay of WWF identifies 8 steps to “freeze the footprint of food” in his article in Nature. While he examines the issue particularly with regard to Africa, these points are relevent in a global context as well. For instance, recent discussion in food and foreign policy areas have focused on the practice of “land grabbing”; Clay points out the need to restore degraded, underperforming or abandoned land instead of looking for fresh land to cultivate.

But what makes the top of the list of options is genetics: it cannot be said often enough, we are facing a huge problem here and time is not on our side. Using a technology which allows us to catalyse the process of selection of existing desirable traits and also prepare to combat climate change by including traits such as drought or disease resistance; should be an integral part of any solution (accompanied, of course, by a robust biosafety framework). Organic methods can yield good results but time is short and the technology for genetic modification is already available.

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Posted in Farm Technology, Food Policy, Food Security, Hunger, Nutrition

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